UNDP in
Timor Leste

Community seals deal to halt conflict

Local children dressed in traditional Timorese costumes performed at a tara-bandu ceremony. Photo Sandra Magno/UNDP TL

Metinaro – Long running violence in a rural village just outside Timor-Leste’s capital ended recently here with a dance, a prayer, a speech, and the sacrifice of a goat and a pig. (Lee versaun Tetum iha ne'e)

For years, rival youth groups in two communities in the hilly sub-district of Metinaro, fought fiercely over land issues. Nothing could put an end to their aggression, until now.

A tara-bandu ceremony in July 2011 brought villagers together to make a communal promise. In this case, nearly three dozen members of three rival martial arts groups and elder representatives from two villages signed a document pledging to respect the environment, cease using violence to solve their disputes, stop occupying others’ land and end hunting in protected areas.

More than 500 villagers came to witness this traditional ritual that ended in an animal sacrifice to seal the deal.

The ceremony was presided over by the Secretary of State for Social Assistance and Natural Disasters, Jacinto Rigoberto Gomes de Deus.

“We talk about democracy, but we forgot how to respect each other,” said Adão de Araújo, the Administrator of Metinaro sub-district.

“We have now found a way to love our community and stop violence.”

Highlights

A US$3 million UNDP programme helped establish the Department of Peace-Building and Social Cohesion (DPBSC) within the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

The ceremony in Metinaro marks the third local conflict which has been resolved with assistance from DPBSC.

UNDP worked to train national conflict resolution mediators for the districts of Ermera, Dili and Baucau.

This celebration of peace marked the culmination of a three-month community dialogue mediation combining formal negotiation techniques with informal and traditional methods of resolving disputes. UNDP has been working with the Timorese government to strengthen its ability to keep these kinds of local disputes from turning into larger conflicts.

In speaking about today’s ceremony, UNDP Country Director Mikiko Tanaka said: “The tara-bandu shows how far Timor-Leste as a country has come in dealing with conflict.

“The Timor-Leste dialogue and tara-bandu for peace is unique in that it combines the local cultural customs and more modern mediation methods.”

A US$3 million UNDP programme is providing technical and financial assistance to create the Department of Peace-Building and Social Cohesion within the Ministry of Social Solidarity, and train national mediators in the districts of Ermera, Dili and Baucau in conflict resolution skills.

This new government department intervenes in local disputes when they turn particularly violent, and villagers are unable to reach agreements on their own.

Training is also offered for community leaders, council members and traditional leaders in such techniques as facilitation of dialogues, and mediation.

Some of these newly trained mediators helped resolve the dispute in Metinaro.

“We have to create peace, unity and stability,” said Félix Rodrigues, a representative from one of the martial arts group that signed the pledge.

“Future problems cannot be solved with violence, but instead we have to bring them to local authorities to find our own solutions.”

Sources of conflict remain in Timor-Leste’s communities, sometimes as residual resentment from a 2006 national crisis that stemmed from grievances within the police and military.

A two-year spate of violence resulted in more than 150,000 internally displaced persons who fled from their homes and took up residence in 65 camps scattered throughout Dili and the districts.

As they moved back to their communities by the end of 2009, antipathy developed against the returnees, as did disputes over land and property, rivalries among martial arts groups, political and regional divisions, and restlessness among a large number of unemployed.

Recognizing that building peace and social cohesion takes time, the Ministry of Social Solidarity decided to establish the Department of Peace-Building and Social Cohesion.

The Department was opened in December 2010, with UNDP support.

Today’s ceremony in Metinaro marks the third local conflict which has been resolved with assistance from the new Department.

As Timor-Leste prepares for the 2012 national elections and the drawdown of the UN peace-keeping mission, sustaining the peace is all the more important in this nine-year-old country.